Development plans of government should act as trajectory and spring boards for the development of a country. Hence, it is difficult or impossible for a country to achieve development without adhering and implementing concrete development plans. Development plans are theoretically designed and supposedly based on the economic philosophy of the state. Nigeria’s economic crisis appears to have defied all solutions in spite of the myriads of economic development plans by successive governments. The study seeks to investigate why? In view of the above, this paper examines Nigeria’s Development plans in the context of development theories. It discovered that several development plans under different successive civilian regimes from 1999-2019. The paper relied on secondary source of data. It discovered that there has been incessant abandonment of development plans by successive regimes which has brought about the confusion in the philosophy of the Nigerian state. This paper recommends that the Nigerian state should have a document referred to as the Nigerian Dream which should be designed by representatives of Nigerians from the 774 Local Governments and 36 states of the Federation. It should contain the aspirations, philosophy and National Strategic Growth of the country. Also the unilateral termination of ongoing development plans by the Presidents should be entrenched in the constitution as an impeachable offence. Key words: Economic and development plans, Economic Development, Civilian President, civilian transition and Development theories..